Politics

Senate chaplain Barry C. Black showed his disapproval for the ongoing government shutdown during his morning prayer on Friday.

Black, a Seventh-Day Adventist and former Navy rear admiral, has held the nonpartisan position of chaplain for a decade.

In his prayer before the Senate he asked God to “save us from the madness,” the New York Times reported.

“We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness and our pride,” he continued. “Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable.”

During his morning invocation Friday, the day after a car chase ended with a woman being shot on Capitol Hill, Black was sure to mention that the brave Capitol Police who responded to the threat were not being paid because of the shutdown.

He asked God to forgive members of Congress.

“Remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism,” he said. “Forgive them the blunders they have committed.”

Black, 65, is the first African-American Senate chaplain. He grew up in public housing in Baltimore. In 2006, he wrote an autobiography titled “From the Hood to the Hill.”

“I use a biblical perspective to decide my beliefs about various issues,” Black told the New York Times. “Let’s just say I’m liberal on some and conservative on others. But it’s obvious the Bible condemns some things in a very forceful and overt way, and I would go along with that condemnation.”

As of late, his prayers have been more pointed.

“May they remember that all that is necessary for unintended catastrophic consequences is for good people to do nothing,” Black said on the day of the shutdown deadline.

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